He attended a Jesuit school in Romanów, then continued his education at Vinnitsa, where he graduated from the Gimnazjum Podolskie (PodoleGymnasium).
He first studied music with his father Ignacy, a violinist, composer and music director. Beginning in 1825 he studied in Warsaw with Józef Elsner, at first privately, then in 1826–28 at the Warsaw Conservatory, where he was a classmate of Frédéric Chopin.
In 1835, he won second prize in a composition competition for his Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 15. This symphony was later called "Symphony in the Characteristic Spirit of Polish Music" and movements were conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. In 1845 Dobrzyński toured Germany as a soloist and also conducted operas and concerts.
In 1857 he founded "Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński's Polish Orchestra" (Orkiestra Polska Ignacego Feliksa Dobrzyńskiego), which comprised leading members of the orchestra of Warsaw's Grand Theatre. In 1858–60 he participated in a committee established to found a Music Institute. He also became a member of the Lwów Music Society.
He died in Warsaw on 9 October 1867, at the age of 60.
Works
Dobrzyński's compositions included:
an opera, Monbar czyli Flibustierowie (Monbar, or the Filibusters), Op. 30, 1836-8[1]
a piano concerto, Op. 2, 1824, and a Rondo à la Polacca, Op. 6 for piano and orchestra (ca. 1827)[1]
chamber music, most notably a sextet for two violins, viola, two cellos and double bass in E♭, Op. 39; three string quartets (Op. 7 in E minor, Op. 8 in D minor and Op. 13 in E); a piano trio (Op. 17); Duo for Clarinet and Piano (composed in the mid-1840s), Op. 47; and two string quintets (in F major, Op. 20; in A minor, Op. 40)[1]
Fantasies for violin and orchestra (Op. 32, ca. 1839) and for trumpet and orchestra (Op. 35), among other concerted works[1]